Below is the comment by Gabriel Debach, market analyst at eToro, who looks at the accounts of Buzzi Unicem:
“Definitely positive market response to the preliminary 2022 readings for Buzzi, despite a publication mainly aimed at giving reasons for the slowdowns in the last period of the year, characterized by weak volumes but favored by high prices and with an economic situation seen as slowing down. The term inflation is used 16 times and slowdown 11 times,” notes Debach.
“In this context, the company managed to generate a 16% growth in turnover during 2022, compared to +6.9% in 2021”.
The EToro analyst highlighted that, “Italy was the driving force behind sales, whose overall weight went from 17% in 2021 to 18% in 2022, with a growth of +20.1%. The US market also performed well, accounting for 40% of sales, with growth of 19.7%. Finally, the +40% growth of the Russian market should be reported thanks, but not only, to the exchange rate effect”.
“EBITDA expected at approximately 880 million euros, up 10.7% y/y, with margins decreasing from 23.1% in 2021 to 22% in 2022 – underlines Debach – With a forward P/E at 8.5x and with a year-to-date return of nearly 18%, the stock, despite an uncertain economic backdrop, seems positioned to recover pre-covid levels”.
Yesterday Buzzi Unicem released some preliminary data relating to the year ended 31 December 2022.
During the year, cement sales decreased by 9.2% to 28.3 million tonnes and ready-mix concrete sales by 5.2% to 11.5 million cubic metres.
The last quarter of the year was characterized by generally weak volumes, but the favorable change in sales prices continued.